Chapter 4 - Melted Feelings

Paddy groaned, ribs aching like a broken tin whistle after yesterday’s mess.

The sun barged in through the crooked tavern window like it had a grudge, stabbing Paddy in the eyes and brain at once. He toppled off the bench and hit the floor like a sack full of bad decisions.

His entire body creaked as he stood.

Beds weren’t exactly easy to come by when you woke up in a different world.

Paddy: "Should’ve died in my own world. At least the floorboards knew me there."

They holed up in a tavern half a village over, far enough to dodge the two blind weirdos from yesterday, assuming they weren’t tracking by smell. This new place had a sign that just said "DRINK," nailed to a barrel, and smelled faintly of goat. But the roof was mostly attached, and Paddy could afford a bench.

The lazy drag of feet came before Balloon herself appeared in the doorway. Hair like straw after a tumble in a bush. Eyes still dreaming.

Balloon: "You up, Paddy? We've got a job!"

Paddy: "Look who got a room. Unless they’re giving breakfast or amnesia, I don’t care."

She ignored him and started sorting dry leaves like they were sacred texts.

Paddy blinked at her.

Paddy: "Right. Okay. ‘We’? What do you mean we? Since when am I part of a bloody team?"

She didn’t even look up.

Balloon: "Since yesterday."

Paddy: "I don’t recall getting hired."

Balloon: "I was on my way to the tavern. Before I met you there. Got cornered by guild folks. Very pushy."

Paddy: "Let me guess. You smiled and panicked and agreed to something stupid."

...

Balloon: "I happened... to sign us both up. They said it was a beginner quest. Just something to do with missing ore in a mine not far from here. Easy... if you’ve got fire."

Paddy: "And what do we not have, judging by my wallet and your outfit?"

Balloon: "Fire."

She held up a half-scorched leaf like it was a confession.

Balloon: "Tried to improvise. Didn’t go well."

...

Paddy: "Wait. You forged my name?”

Balloon: "They wanted two signatures. I got creative."

Paddy rubbed his face.

Paddy: "Brilliant. So the one thing we need, we don’t have. What's next? Will this quest eat my confidence?"

The mine was nestled in the Carlach foothills, a few hours’ hike west of the Dermott Kingdom. The path took them along scrubby moorland, where old stones jutted out like broken teeth and the grass whispered in ways Paddy didn’t like.

About halfway there, they passed through an odd stretch of land.

The soil sank into a shallow trench, wide enough for three wagons side by side, too straight and smooth in parts to be natural.

Paddy: "You said ‘not far’. Our definitions clearly don’t match!"

Balloon stopped walking.

Balloon: "Do you feel that?"

Not answering, he just glared at her. The air here was still. Not quiet, still. Like even the sound had forgotten how to move.

Grass grew differently on the trench floor. Sparse, yellow, half-alive. No flowers. No insects. No birds overhead.

Paddy: "Looks like a road. But not for the likes of us."

He stepped in cautiously. The ground was firmer than expected. Old, but... aware, somehow.

Balloon: "I read something, once. About giants. They had roads like this. Left them behind when they stopped walking."

Paddy: "Stopped?"

Balloon: "Some say they just sat down one day and didn’t get back up. Too old. Too heavy."

Paddy: "Sounds familiar."

He stood there a second longer, then stepped out of the trench like it might bite him. Whatever made that road wasn’t dead. Just done with being seen.

The mine looked like someone punched a cliff and dared it to fall in. The entrance was ringed by rusting lanterns and a single wooden board hung by the entrance, its writing long since faded.

Balloon pulled out a map someone had drawn with all the precision of a drunken beast. The mine’s name had been scratched out and re-written a few times. Now it just showed a very basic 'ABBEYLANDS IRON MINE' in shaky red ink.

A grimy foreman met them outside, missing two fingers and all of his patience. He gestured at a map like it owed him money.

Foreman: "Fourth shaft’s the trouble. Tools vanish, carts come back empty. Don’t ask. You go in, and you sort it out."

Paddy: "Do we at least get paid up front-"

The foreman was already walking away.

...

Balloon: "Right. So what will we use for light, seeing as I’m not made of lanterns?"

He pointed to the lamp slung over his shoulder without a word.

Balloon: "Is that... enchanted?"

Paddy didn’t answer. He just looked down and smacked it hard twice. On the third hit, it buzzed and flared to life.

Paddy: "Well that worked anyway."

Balloon: "That’s not how you’re supposed to activate those."

Paddy: "Oh, excuse me, Princess, maybe you can sweet-talk the cursed lamp to behave next time."

They stepped forward. The air shifted as they crossed the threshold into the shaft. Cooler, heavier, and damp.

Then something foul hit his nose. He stopped.

Paddy: "...That’s poison."

Balloon: "It’s not poison, it’s a curse. You breathe it in too long and your skin falls off."

Paddy: "So... poison."

Balloon: "It’s not poison!"

Paddy: "Yeah, well we called it carbon monoxide, or something."

Balloon: "What’s that?"

Paddy: "Invisible stuff that kills you before you even notice, like a mortgage."

Balloon: "I- okay?"

They walked on.

Inside, it was worse.

The mine smelled like mould and rusted metal. Wet air clung to Paddy’s lungs, and the lamp he carried barely lit five feet ahead.

Then came the squelch.

A faint, wet noise just around the bend. Then another.

Paddy: "I think I hear your beginner-friendly pals."

They rounded the corner.

Slimes.

Greenish-blue blobs, pulsing and twitching, clinging to the metal rails like parasites. Some bigger than barrels. Others small, shivering things that oozed across pickaxes and wheels.

Balloon: "They're eating the iron."

Paddy: "And your sword."

Too late. Her one and only blade, tucked in her belt, slipped free and landed hilt-first in a puddle of slime.

Paddy: "Well. There goes the family heirloom."

The sword hissed as its blade dissolved like sugar in tea.

Balloon silently stared at the slime where her sword had been, defeated.

Paddy: "Yep. That’s confidence gone."

The slimes stirred, and Paddy swallowed hard.